1. Field of the Invention
Recently printers have developed new techniques which have led to speed-up in the printing and finishing of certain jobs and including the effecting of economies in the setting up and running of these jobs. The certain printing jobs include those of multiple page books or booklets. In the past the printing of books was accomplished by printing a number of pages, collecting the printed pages in the desired arrangement, binding the groups of pages, and then shearing the bound pages to a uniform size. One of the first steps made in the modernizing of printing techniques was to print plural pages on a single continuous web of paper and with adequate room for folding and slitting the printed web was agregated into book form. However, in most instances the "book" still needed edge shearing to make the job appear finished.
The present invention contemplates the complete printing and accurate folding of the several pages in such a manner as to avoid the necessity of binding or subsequent edge shearing. This novel invention utilizes surface cooperative rolls to exclusively act on a continuously printed web to effect full and accurate folding and refolding by tucking, gripping, and cutting of the web at a speed equal to the full speed of the printer. An adequate number of rolls are employed to tuck, grip, fold, refold, and cut any desired number of pages. The present invention utilizes the mounting of universal boxes onto the external surfaces of the cooperating rolls in a manner to permit infinite position adjustment of the boxes on the several surfaces. Each universal box is equipped with a tucker, a gripper, a cutter, or an anvil and the various devices are arranged to cooperate with each other as necessary to effect a tucking, a gripping, a folding, a refolding, or a cutting to accomplish the complete making of a printed booklet of multiple pages. In previous devices tucking, gripping and cutting required rolls having pre-notched surfaces which limited the positioning of the tucking, gripping, or cutting devices. No, or very limited, adjustment was available in any prior tucking, gripping and cutting rolls so that it was almost impossible to uniformly obtain a multiple page folder with identical size pages and this resulted in the added step of having to shear the pages to uniform length.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The 1966 U.S. Pat. No. 3,231,261 to Huffman shows and describes the making of printed booklets. This device employs a number of separate stages in the making of the booklets and a description of each of these stages follows.
The first booklet making stage aggregates a plurality of preprinted continuous, superposed webs of the type having uniformly spaced holes along the sides thereof. These superposed webs are delivered to a conveyor provided with uniformly spaced apart outwardly projecting pins. The conveyor pins engage the holes of the webs to effectively and accurately align and convey the plurality of individual webs in superposed relationship as a composite multi-layer web.
The second booklet making stage provides for the optional printing of the upper surface of the top most web at a time when the webs are in superposed relationship.
The third booklet making stage provides for the transverse stitching of the plurality of superposed webs as by a row of staples.
The fourth booklet making stage provides for the longitudinal slitting of the plurality of superposed webs into a plurality of parts. This stage provides for the slitting and removal of the side edge feeding and guiding holes and the subdividing of the transverse extent of the webs into any desired number of sub-assemblies which are separately stapled.
The fifth booklet making stage provides for the transverse cutting of the plurality of superposed webs which have been previously stapled together and longitudinally subdivided. The transverse cutting is accomplished by a knife on a cylinder A and the cutting is at a location such that the staple 30 is located at a midpoint of the length of the cut-off portion.
The sixth booklet making stage provides for the guiding of the stapled sub-assembly sheets around the cylinder B.
The seventh booklet making stage provides for the gripping of the pages of the sub-assemblies by the grippers 130 and 140 on a cylinder C at the point of the staple 30. This effects a folding of the pages of the sub-assemblies about the staple.
The eighth booklet making stage provides for the stripping of the formed booklets from the folding roller C.
The ninth booklet making stage provides for the deposit of the formed booklets onto a conveyor and the collecting of the booklets in a receiving area.
The Huffman patent thus shows only a single fold and that fold being around a stapled portion of a plural number of pages. Also, there is no possible way the specially recessed rolls of Huffman will permit of possible adjustment of his cutting and folding devices and hence the Huffman pages are of fixed length and generally there is a lack of identity between Huffman and applicants' device as disclosed in this application. Applicants' device with the externally mounted universal boxes containing tucking, gripping, cutting and anvil members provides for great latitude in the user making any size and number of pages of booklet desired.
The Kalman U.S. Pat. No. 3,579,947 shows a device for producing a multiple page printed booklet from a continuously fed web. The web is folded over a former board 14 and after having preformed envelopes glued thereto the folded web is perforated and then cut into short lengths, each of which length carries an envelope. The cutting is made by knives 78 and 80 of the knife cylinder 72 cooperating with recesses in the cylinder 74. It is stated by the Kalman specification that the web cut sheets 82 are nipped at their respective midpoints by the jaws 86 and 88 of the cylinder 75 to transversely fold the sheets with a folded edge 104. Just how this is accomplished with the glued in envelope on the inside of the booklet is not shown nor described. Conveyors 96 and 97 are stated to receive the folded and glued sheets and in turn deliver them to a chopper blade 98 which functions to longitudinally fold the sheets 82. Despite the fact Kalman's device is described as making a multiple page booklet it lacks identity and function with applicants' device.
Our own prior U.S. Pat. No. 3,857,314 shows and describes the "box" like elements mounted externally of a cylinder to obtain infinite adjustability of a cutter on a cylinder. Now with such infinitely adjustable boxes being built with tuckers, grippers, cutters, and anvils a printer can set up his printing equipment to accomplish the continuous printing and folding of multiple page booklets of any size, of any fold arrangement, and of any numbers of pages. The operational rollers utilized in the present invention are constructed identically to that of the rollers shown and described in my prior patent. Each such roller is constructed with a plurality of axially spaced apart annular grooves, preferably undercut, to receive the boxes in any of an infinite number of desired positions around the full circumference of the roller. And, as in my previous patent the various boxes employed may be set on the rollers relative to one another with any desired spacing. Similarly, the boxes employed in the present invention are equipped with bolt members arranged and constructed to cooperate with wedging nuts disposed in the undercut grooves of the rollers in the same manner as in my prior patent to thus facilitate the locking attachment of the boxes in any arcuate setting around the full circumference of each such roller.